Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla was born in Mar del Plata, Argentina in 1921 to immigrant Italian parents, Piazzolla spent most of his childhood with his family in New York City. While there, he acquired fluency in four languages: Spanish, English, French, and Italian. He also started playing the bandoneon, quickly rising to the status of child prodigy. While still quite young, he met Carlos Gardel, another great figure of Argentine tango. He returned to Argentina in 1937, where strictly traditional tango still reigned, and played in night clubs with a series of groups. The pianist Arthur Rubinstein (then living in Buenos Aires) advised him to study with the Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera. Delving into scores of Stravinsky, Bartók, Ravel, and others, he gave up tango temporarily and worked as a modernist classical composer.
At Ginastera's urging, in 1953 Piazzolla entered his "Buenos Aires" Symphony in a composition contest, and won a grant from the French government to study in Paris with the French composer and conductor Nadia Boulanger. The insightful Boulanger turned his life around in a day, as Piazzolla tells beautifully in his own words:
"When I met her, I showed her my kilos of symphonies and sonatas. She started to read them and suddenly came out with a horrible sentence: ‘It's very well written.’ And stopped, with a big period, round like a soccer ball. After a long while, she said: “Here you are like Stravinsky, like Bartók, like Ravel, but you know what happens? I can't find Piazzolla in this.” And she began to investigate my private life: what I did, what I did and did not play, if I was single, married, or living with someone, she was like an FBI agent! And I was very ashamed to tell her that I was a tango musician. Finally I said, “I play in a ‘night club.’” I didn't want to say “cabaret.” And she answered, “Night club, mais oui, but that is a cabaret, isn't it?” “Yes,” I answered, and thought, “I'll hit this woman in the head with a radio....” It wasn't easy to lie to her.
She kept asking: “You say that you are not pianist. What instrument do you play, then?” And I didn't want to tell her that I was a bandoneon player, because I thought, “Then she will throw me from the fourth floor.” Finally, I confessed and she asked me to play some bars of a tango of my own. She suddenly opened her eyes, took my hand and told me: “You idiot, that's Piazzolla!” And I took all the music I composed, ten years of my life, and sent it to hell in two seconds."
Piazzolla returned to Argentina in 1955, formed the Octeto Buenos Aires to play tangos, and never looked back.
Upon introducing his new approach to the tango (nuevo tango), he became a controversial figure among Argentines both musically and politically. The Argentine saying "in Argentina everything may change — except the tango" suggests some of the resistance he found in his native land. However, his music gained acceptance in Europe and North America, and his reworking of the tango was embraced by some liberal segments of Argentine society, who were pushing for political changes in parallel to his musical revolution.
During the period of Argentine military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, Piazzolla lived in France, but returned many times to Argentina, recorded there, and on at least one occasion had lunch with the dictator Jorge Rafael Videla. However, his relationship with the dictator might have been less than friendly, as recounted in Astor Piazzolla, A manera de Memorias (a comprehensive collection of interviews, constituting a memoir):
In 1990 he suffered a thrombosis in Paris and he passed away two years later in Buenos Aires.
Piazzolla's nuevo tango was distinct from the traditional tango in its incorporation of elements of jazz, its use of extended harmonies and dissonance, its use of counterpoint, and its ventures into extended compositional forms. Piazzolla also introduced new instruments that were not used in the traditional tango, including the flute, saxophone, electric guitar, electronic instruments, and a full jazz/rock drum kit.
Piazzolla played with numerous ensembles beginning with the 1946 Orchestra, the 1955 "Octeto Buenos Aires", the 1960 "First Quintet", the 1971 "Noneto", the 1978 "Second Quintet" and the 1989 "Sextet". As well as providing original compositions and arrangements, he was the director and Bandoneon player in all of them. He also recorded an album with jazz sax player Gerry Mulligan. His numerous compositions include orchestral work such as the "Concierto para Bandoneón, Orquesta, Cuerdas y Percusión", "Doble-Concierto para Bandoneón y Guitarra", "Tres Tangos Sinfónicos" and "Concierto de Nácar para 9 Tanguistas y Orquesta", as well as song-form compositions that still today are well known by the general public in his country, like "Balada para un loco" (Ballad for a madman) and "Adiós Nonino" (dedicated to his father) which he recorded many times with different musicians and ensembles. Biographers estimate that Piazzolla wrote around 3,000 pieces and recorded around 500.
He suffered a cerebral haemorrhage in Paris on 4 August 1990, which left him in a coma, and died in Buenos Aires, just under two years later on 4 July 1992, without regaining consciousness.
other albums not listed here
~ The Birth of Tango Nuevo, Vol. 1 - Sinfonia de Tango
~ Mis 30 Mejores Tangos
~ Piazzolla Interpreta A. Piazzolla (Original Album - Remastered)
~ Ensayos
~ Tiempo Nuevo
~ Se Armó
~ El Milrago - The Early Recordings, Vol. 2 (Astor Piazzolla With His First Own Orchestra, So Called 1946 Band.)
~ Tango Moderno
Cuesta Abajo
Astor Piazzolla Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
la vergüenza de habersido
y el dolor de ya no ser...
Bajo el ala del sombrero,
cuántas veces embozada
una lágrima asomada
yo no pude contener...
Si crucé por los caminos
se empeño en deshacer...
Si fui flojo, si fui ciego,
sólo quiero que comprendan
el valor que representa
el coraje de querer.
Era para mí la vida entera,
como un sol de primavera,
mi esperanza y mí pasión.
Sabía
que en el mundo no cabía
toda la humilde alegría
de mi pobre corazón.
Ahora,
cuesta abajo en mi rodada,
las ilusiones pasadas
yo no las puedo arrancar.
Sueño
con el pasado que añoro,
el tiempo viejo que lloro
y que nunca volverá.
Por seguir tras de su huella
yo bebí incansablemente
en mi copa de dolor,
pero nade comprendía
que si todo yo lo daba
en cada vuelta dejaba
pedazos de corazón.
Ahora, triste en la pendiente,
solitario y ya vencido,
yo me quiero confesar.
¡Si aquella boca mentía
el amor que me ofrecía,
por aquellos ojos brujos
yo habría dado siempre más!
PMS
The lyrics to Astor Piazzolla's song "Cuesta Abajo" capture the essence of a life filled with regret and longing for a past that can never be retrieved. The singer speaks of the shame and pain of having lived and lost, and the tears he could not hold back as he hid beneath the brim of his hat. He admits to having been weak and blind, but emphasizes the importance of understanding the courage it takes to love. He compares his life to a spring sun, full of hope and passion, but acknowledges that his dreams have come crashing down and he can never reclaim what he once had.
The song is both mournful and nostalgic, with a sense of resignation and acceptance of the singer's fate. He speaks of drinking deeply from the cup of pain and giving away pieces of his heart with every turn of the wheel. He is now alone and defeated, but still yearning for the love that was promised to him. The lyrics are a poignant reminder of the fragility of life and the inevitability of loss, but also of the power of love to sustain us even in our darkest hours.
Line by Line Meaning
Si arrastré por estemundo la vergüenza de habersido y el dolor de ya no ser...
If I carried the shame of my past mistakes and the pain of not being the person I used to be in this world...
Bajo el ala del sombrero, cuántas veces embozada una lágrima asomada yo no pude contener...
Under the brim of my hat, how many times did I unsuccessfully try to hide my tears...
Si crucé por los caminos como un paria que el Destino se empeño en deshacer...
If I walked the roads like an outcast that fate was determined to break...
Si fui flojo, si fui ciego, sólo quiero que comprendan el valor que representa el coraje de querer.
If I was weak, if I was blind, I only want people to understand the value of the courage to love.
Era para mí la vida entera, como un sol de primavera, mi esperanza y mí pasión.
Life was everything to me, my hope and my passion, like a springtime sun shining bright.
Sabía que en el mundo no cabía toda la humilde alegría de mi pobre corazón.
I knew that all the humble happiness in my poor heart couldn't fit in this world.
Ahora, cuesta abajo en mi rodada, las ilusiones pasadas yo no las puedo arrancar.
Now, rolling downhill, I can't escape my past hopes and dreams.
Sueño con el pasado que añoro, el tiempo viejo que lloro y que nunca volverá.
I dream of the past I miss, the old times I mourn that will never come back.
Por seguir tras de su huella yo bebí incansablemente en mi copa de dolor, pero nade comprendía que si todo yo lo daba en cada vuelta dejaba pedazos de corazón.
By chasing after their footsteps, I relentlessly drank from my cup of pain, but no one understood that with every turn, I lost a piece of my heart.
Ahora, triste en la pendiente, solitario y ya vencido, yo me quiero confesar.
Now, sad and defeated, alone on the slope, I want to confess.
¡Si aquella boca mentía el amor que me ofrecía, por aquellos ojos brujos yo habría dado siempre más!
If that mouth lied about the love it offered me, for those bewitching eyes, I would have given even more!
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: ADRIAN JUAN GARIBOTTI ANDREOLO, CARLOS GARDEL HUERTAS LARIOS, JUAN VICENTE ZAMBRANO, ALFREDO LE PERA, GERARDO RIVERA RODRIGUEZ
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Julia Arias
Fue un genio lo escuche cantar hace 10 años atra y tenia una vosmagnifica COMO ME GUSTARIA SABER SI VIVE CREO Q NO ERA MUY GRANDE .
Alito Aep
Qué joyita esta grabación! De Rosas, el cantor que mejor entendió y aportó a Piazzolla, surge del arreglo como un instrumento más, sin por ello dejar de tener su personalidad y estilo propios.
mick camaño
UN GENIO !!